We are "building Rome", getting our
game on piece by piece with a ton of support from the our friends at Advanced
Clutch Systems, Champion Spark Plugs, KW Suspensions, Turbo by Garrett, Hankook
Tire, Forgestar Performance Wheels, Spyder Lights, Road Race Engineering, Megan
Racing, Powered by MAX, 5th Dimension Signworks, Corner3Garage,
AMDrift.com, Fueled Racing, MotoIQ, AEM, MP Tuning, City Tire Online, Nissan
Race Shop, PAC Autobody & Paint, Sparco, Fiveo Motorsport, Baker Precision
and many more, and we would like to thank everyone who has lent a hand so far
in the process of getting the Rydquist Racing Berk Technology 350Z powered by Championto what it is today.

It's easy to forget and raise the
expectations prematurely since we've been used to winning for over a decade,
but we're not road racing now and 2013 is our development year in drifting,
Formula Drift is the "Sprint Cup" of drifting = highest level in the world
alongside D1 in Japan, and our focus is to build an ultra reliable car and to
get data at all tracks, learn the ropes and get me a ton of sideways seat time
at the right speeds.

Photo by Road Race
Engineering. Our pit setup gets
a lot of positive feedback and we're ready to use this as a sponsor activation
area at all times.

In Texas, the Berk Technology team with the
additional force from Road Race Engineering provided me with a car that handled
the super high temperatures during the four hour long Thursday practice like it
was nothing. It's what I call "The Berk Factor", proper prepared and tested. I
was able to get a lot of seat time and I tried a few new things/variations as a
driver and we always learn something new about what we can and cannot do with
our setup.

The Formula Drift course layout in Texas
started with a 90-100 mph entry (depending on engine power and gearbox) which probably
sounds crazy but that wasn't the hard part of the course. It's followed by a
fast chicane and then the most challenging part which was a very long
transition where speed needs to be carried at angle for much longer than most
cars naturally want to.

The Texas Formula Drift grid was packed with 55
competitors and the team was on point.

After testing a few things and not liking
more than a couple of changes, we stuck close to a setup we know works and I
put in two pretty consistent scores, always with line being the priority.
Unfortunately we focused on the "wrong" criteria and I broke my M.O. as a
driver which has always been smoothness and speed, and I was trying to push harder
on angle and snappy transitions where we didn't quite have the wheel speed yet
to do that. We're roughly tapped out at 108 mph and for a good transition, we'd
need 130mph, which means different gearing and up a gear, which in turn
requires even more power than our V8 upgrade gave.

Wheel speed in drifting can carry a drift
longer with greater speed and angle and this was definitely the biggest
challenge in Formula Drift history with this Texas course layout.

Adding angle mid drift counts as a correction
although my 72.1 point score after first qualifying landed us a 25th
spot. We were however looking for at least 82 at this event in the second run
in order to stay firmly in the Top 32 but the second run was almost identical
in score, again due to little angle corrections and a dirt drop.

The
Berk team is here to stay and they prepped an amazing car for me. Remember,
we're only just getting started.

To give some insight here, these two blurry screenshots
are from the livestream of the second qualifying, and the first one shows where
I lost 5 points, it's close enough to the outside but there's a small angle
correction (-2.5p) as I added angle, and then another deduction (-2.5p) when I
pushed to keep the angle wide although the car with this wheel speed naturally
wants to straighten out.

It was then followed by a dirt drop as can be
seen to the right, which means a wheel in the dirt just outside the kerbs
(-5p). Normally, and as I did in my first qualifying run, it's easy to stay within
the track boundaries but adding in the extra angle when pushing the car for a
higher score, moved the car just a foot over the edge.

You could reflect and say that's a little
steep but it shows how easy it is to lose 10 points in a Formula Drift qualifying
run. Big miss on a personal level to not just stay fast and smooth and
sacrifice angle, and another learning point. With a field this close it's the
difference between moving onto Top32 or finishing 38th.

We
reached 91mph on the entry last weekend, next year with a turbocharger on the
V8 and a quick shifting "dogbox" we should see 100+ like some of the strongest
cars did last weekend. Not that it really compares to racing at 200mph in rain
and pitch black night at the Nurburgring but it's fun with the mix of slow and
fast courses!

The
later the hour, the more fans arrived. Drifting does look best at night.

This weekend we took the time to have a one
to one sit-down session with Formula Drift judges Andy Yen, Brian Eggert and Ryan Lanteigne as
they always encourage drivers to come talk to them plus at this time I feel the
car is soon going to be at a point where it more or less entirely is going to
be up to me.

Talking to the judges brings additional
clarity at each track to the sensitivity of each separate criteria. This means
more hard work on my side to get fully transitioned from road racing where it's
all about speed, to get in tune with the different judging criteria and to
become more competitive going sideways in this field of drivers.

Photo
by Wrecked Magazine.com. The new V8 motor definitely gave the car a great leap
forward. In 2014 it will be turbo charged to make over 700 rwhp. Until then
we'll be running with nitrous to support a higher wheel speed.

This
event had probably one of the longest autograph lines of the season. There was
no chance to meet everyone within the scheduled hour, so we overstayed and made
some new friends in the process.

We were happy to have Hankook's spokes model
Katelynn help us promote this year's edition of Search For A Champion. SFAC is
the sponsorship video contest put on by Champion Spark Plugs where I won a sponsorship
helping me to get started on our quest to one day battle for a win in the
Formula Drift Championship.

All in all, Texas was a very productive
weekend for us and it was as always a great Formula Drift event and a great
opportunity to bring our sponsor brands out to meet and greet new fans in a new
part of the country.

We're stoked to be on this path. Until
next time!! /Carl

The final round "Title Fight" of the 2013 Formula Drift PRO
Championship will take place at Irwindale Speedway, CA on Oct 11-12. Tickets
can be purchased at www.formulad.com, and
news, livestream and event info can also be found there.